Vt. health commissioner urges vaccinations to help fight off potential ‘tripledemic’

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - With just 10 days until Thanksgiving, the public health community is raising the alarm, concerned about the possibility of a “tripledemic” of concurring outbreaks of COVID, the flu and RSV.

Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine is urging everyone to do their part by getting vaccinated.

According to the CDC, the spread of COVID in Vermont is currently low, and Levine says hospitalizations are the lowest they have been in months.

Levine also says the flu is at low levels in Vermont, but forecasts show it may be heading this way.

“This year so far, about 25% of eligible Vermonters have received the flu vaccine. This is a little behind our performance in the last two years,” Levine said.

Watch the video to see Dr. Mark Levine’s full conversation with our Ike Bendavid.

Levine also says Vermont is seeing a rise in RSV cases, that’s a respiratory illness that’s especially dangerous to young children. But he says our hospitals’ pediatric ICUs haven’t reached the crisis stage that facilities in some other parts of the country have.

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